Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s “Theater Camp” world premiered this past weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received two standing ovations from the audience, one following the film itself and one after a post-screening musical performance.
Shortly after, Searchlight Pictures took the bait and acquired distribution for the film for $8 million. Bad move. There are no theatrical prospects for “Theater Camp.” None. Zilch. Nada.
This mockumentary set at an upstate musical theater camp will maybe adhere to hardcore camp musical aficionados, but, truthfully, that’s a very minuscule audience. Searchlight might regret this buy, but they were probably hungry buyers to begin with and the fact that not much stood out at this year’s Sundance meant they settled with this one.
No doubt, Searchlight must have been interested in John Carney’s “Flora and Son.” The filmmaker’s latest cutesie musical was met with good reviews and yet another standing ovation from Sundance audiences.
This “buzz” translated into Apple overpaying for the rights to “Flora and Son,” dishing out a whopping $20 million for the film, which has a single mom (Eve Hewson) getting her troubled son a used guitar and hiring the help of a Los Angeles-based online guitar teacher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
Much like “Theater Camp,” the buzz will likely stay at Sundance with this one. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a likeable movie, filled with catchy music, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a reliably great screen presence, but at $20 million, what exactly is Apple expecting from this movie?
Carney’s last film, 2016’s “Sing Street,” only grossed $3 million in the US, and that was when small indies could still make theatrical money. Of course, Apple isn’t necessarily going to be looking at box-office numbers when it comes to their streamer, but questions remain as to what their game plan actually is in regards to this film.